Raver50032

Ready to sit back and watch it all burn with a large Toblerone. 52% voted leave, let them suck the mop. I for one, would rather go to prison than end up being taxed to pay the divorce bill. Let the 52% pay that... For that reason, I'm out.

My all time favourite word... have a festive 'like...'

I'll be honest, I've never really liked Leeds as a football club. In the 91/92 season, I was bullied by a Leeds fan at school. He was a proper word removed. And I haven't forgiven Leeds for giving us a smack 4-1 live on ITV that season either. So 1995/96 League Cup Final was a grand day out for me. As perfect a Wembley performance as I could imagine. Sadly, I was living in Luton at the time (Uni) and as I was coming back from the final, I had to use St Pancras station. I got on board one train that stopped at Luton and despite minding my own business (never been a trouble maker and I don't do football smugness at other supporters - ever), I got spat on by Leeds supporters. The city of Leeds seems okay. But I can't stand the football club and 'some' of the supporters. Those that poke their noses in on VillaTalk seem okay, so no axe to grind there. Just my personal experiences have clouded my judgement. Hoping for a Villa win obviously... but would probably take a point right now if offered. A defeat would be like getting spat on. And I can't have that.

Made it back safely from Chernobyl and had a fine birthday. Flight delayed back from Kiev due to having to de-ice the wings at Borispol Airport using a machine that looked like it could have been Thunderbird 7. We then had a 30 minute delay circling in the stack above Harlow on the way back in to Heathrow. As such, we bounded in for a landing at 1606... Just in time for me to receive a text from my mate in the Holte that Stoke had scored... Welcome Home... Having gotten through security without setting off any alarms and safely reclaiming my baggage, I discovered that we had equalised and then gone behind again in some sort of penalty bonanza... I was really fuming by now. Got back to my car in West Drayton and a final message from my mate showed that Super Kodg had netted another equaliser. Satisfied by the point in the end... and having seen the highlights, both were penalties and we can have no real complaints with the outcome of the game. Let's hope that Mr Smith can work some magic next week and topple the mighty Leeds United. COYVB...

My birthday on the 14th (Friday) and I'm spending it in Chernobyl. No joke... Fly back on Saturday so will be listening to Radio 5 in the car on the way back home from Heathrow with score updates. UTV... sword them... finally, sword them.

You found a pair of knockers... That home mauling by Liverpool was a tough watch... The culmination of the decline... The inevitable squelch of sliding into the plughole after several years circling it. Less than twelve months after our best Wembley showing in this century... and our worst.

In the bleak mid-winter... 'Twas the night before Christmas... Stop the cavalry... Darn it... couldn't find a festive song/reference with the word 'lock' in it. Didn't have time to search Dickens.

Ivo Stas Gary Penrice Guy Whittingham Habib Beye Makoun Djemba-Djemba Tonev McCormack

After that mesmeric run and goal, I am awaiting the inevitable links with Manchester United. They seem to like poaching our stars.

I could watch that Hutton run and goal many, many times and just be so absolutely thrilled for him, and the Holte End each time. So nice to see some good goals flying in at the Holte End again (nod to McGinn against Wednesday). Nervy opening that Dean Smith will no doubt look to work on before we play Forest. Once we got into our stride, we did look comfortable. MOTM - Adomah (two assists), a purple patch for him. Smith - good Ref - average. He really should have brandished the yellow card in the first minute after that on Grealish. Finally - lol... just lolololololol at Craig 'wordyMcwordyremovedface' Gardner. TROLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL <spinning around in my office chair at work this morning with a nice big grin on my face, and a lovely pink glow to my cheeks>

As Alex once said... 'real horror show' this thread.

I really cannot see the BBC (not a commercial station) stumping up anywhere near the amount of cash that even Sky have offered the EFL in this deal. BBC barely clings on to the last vestiges of crown jewels now and is a spent force for marketable professional sport beyond Wimbledon. Even ladies football seems to be only on the red button and any exposure for ladies football is good exposure. ITV... meh... more interested in Jungle Highlights and wannabe pop stars than lowly EFL matches. I can't see them biffing off the current prime time TV slots midweek for EFL dross. Sure, they show some World Cup and Euros games every two years... But if they can't afford to compete with Sky/BT over Champions League, they won't stump up even what Sky have offered the EFL. You can forget mainstream broadcasters in this country. It just isn't marketable apart from maybe 8 clubs from 24. You (the royal you, because it wasn't just 'you' that quoted my initial tease response) can quote all the other international channels you like, including any combination of subscription channels that try to muscle in on the Sky/BT duo. Who will actually pay anywhere near what Sky have bid... and will actually tempt subscribers for EFL coverage? For example, I don't pay both Sky and BT... I pay for one or the other, and pick up the highlights off the other channel when available elsewhere. For Villa games I can't go to, if they're on Sky, I go to my folks to watch. No way, whilst I have a hole in my arse, am I paying two different subscription services for a football fix. I would imagine that unless you're moneybags rich and don't really care either way, then I am not the only one who pays once, and bugger the rest off as greedy noise makers. It's a fickle market. Football isn't my only interest, and I'd like to think that other supporters, Villa and non-Villa that they actually have other interests too to spend their time and money on. It's borderline delusional to think that there's a bigger deal out there... especially in this country. A foreign operator might pay more money, and if they did, good luck to them and the clubs benefitting from it. But I won't pay a second subscriber out of principle. There's more to life than TV.

Who would screen the breakaway league? Sky and BT specialise in the PL. If the Championship malcontents decide to form a breakaway league, who will screen it and pay bigger money than what Sky have already bid? Setanta? Quest? Be careful what you wish for. Don't get me wrong, the deal isn't great, but what realistic alternative is there?

I still read all of your posts with the voice of Alan Partridge in my head as I read. PMSL... Fantastic.

Well, only them, Lestoh and the Coventry Vermin are the only Midlands PL/FL teams to win trophies this decade... We're in the longest run in our history now without winning a 'major.' On topic, it'll always be Villa Park to me. If it gets us out of a funding fudge hole, then I'm on board.

Fantastic performance that bodes well for our on-going development as a team and our aspirations for the season. All that was missing was 'Petrov from the halfway line...' 9 points from 15 is a decent return where three of the five games have been away from home. Hopefully, Smith can continue this upward and positive trend in the team. If he does, our own positivity as fans will grow as well - a cycle of positivity for a change. Magic. MOTM - Qui Gon McGinn using the Force. Manager - Very Good (yay... super yay) Ref - Good. Bring on the SHA.

Good initial ideal from BfHaV. But S-Platt, you are quite correct about the current status of mobile coverage around the ground. I'm with O2, and as soon as I pass the turnstile to get in, I can forget about sending or receiving anything at the ground. Part of me thinks it is the emergency services dialling down the available public bandwidth; they have the power to control the mobile network when dealing with major incidents (or at least that was what I was told in emergency exercises with them). Surely not every Villa game is a major incident! Anyway, O2 is bobbins at Villa Park on match day.

What about the droid attack on the Wookiees?

Bump... I don't think we can take our eye off the ball on this one as far as Villa goes. We seemed to be about to fall into a large vat of FFP related poop in the summer. Then some new benefactors step in, wave a magic wand, and Purslow sits there to unveil Smith and seems to be all 'we're carrying on as normal' with a hint at spend where needed without concerns. Are we financially in the cack, or have we been financially doped? I've asked the question in the fans consultancy meeting thread as well. Are we still at the 'shit or bust' stage in our relegation cycle?

I think with the breaking news over the last day or so about Manchester City/PSG and Financial Fair Play, now would be a good time to get a proper assurance (no smoke, mirrors etc) that we are not going to fall foul of FA/UEFA/FIFA fingering on the matter. They may not go for City or PSG, but would go for a minnow like us. The way Purslow spoke at the unveiling of Dean Smith seemed to be 'we carry on regardless' like some magical wand has been waved. Is this just a case of him knowing all the loopholes (which could close around us), or are we genuinely okay now? I can't help feeling that we've kind of got all our eggs in this season's basket. How could we be so far in the poop during the summer, then everything is now okay - without obvious financial doping?

Likely to hit the spot that signing ?

Maybe Shearer was right to stamp on his head (allegedly) after all?? ?* *The inclusion of the 'winky emoji' demonstrates that my comment is based on humour and irony and not a reflection of my actual, real thoughts on the matter.

I've done quite a bit of helicopter work as a navigator and camera operator with work. I'm not a pilot, or an engineering authority and speculation about what might have happened is purely that. The spinning in the footage would (to me) be indicative of some sort of tail rotor issue, which seems to have manifested itself once the aircraft has successfully made a reasonably standard 'rear' departure from a tight landing space. There are no power lines there for the aircraft to strike, and no towers/pylons as such in the immediate vicinity of the departure. My speculation upon viewing the footage is whether it was a bird strike of some sort in the moment between where the aircraft is lifting and looking to transition into horizontal flight. Like I said, I'm not a pilot, or an engineer. But I was always encouraged to spot birds/other aircraft for the pilot when not looking at my map or 'flying' the gyroscopic camera. A very tragic set of circumstances. Hopefully, the crew at Farnborough will be able to ascertain what actually happened and mitigate accordingly where practical. Leonardo, the lead manufacturer of the aircraft (formerly Agusta Westland IIRC) have stated that they've never lost an example of this type of helicopter before.

At least with Bannan, we won't need to come up with a chant for him. #recycle

No expectations for this one... fear a defeat... and a point is neither here nor there at the moment. Maybe it's just the Tuesday night hangover, but it all feels a bit 'meh' after the Swansea game. All we can do it be patient and do our best to get behind the team.